Wowza! This has gotten almost a thousand views since I last updated! I've never seen so many followers yet! This is fantastic, thank you all so much!

Also, regarding the poll on my profile for the fate of one Grant Douglas Ward, I'm informing you all that at this moment that an alliance with the team is currently beating one with Jemma. There's still plenty of time to vote on his choice, so feel free to stop by and cast a vote!

So I decided to change the title of this to 'Hidden Secrets' because 'The Photograph isn't really fitting anymore. Also, this is so AU now due to all the things that have happened so far this season. Oh, and speaking of this season, I do plan to include Hartley, Hunter, Idaho in the story later on, as well as Bobbi and Mack. (thank you agents-of-frickle-frackle for cementing my love for Idaho before the show began, and then promptly ruining me in the first episode. You're awesome!)

Also, there's about three Doctor Who references in here, and one of them is a Ten saying. (Not Allons-y though, another one)

This chapter…I don't even know how to explain it other than I hope I don't hurt you too much.


Chapter 6: The Truth Hurts

Leo winced as he cracked his eyes open. There was a dull ache in the back of his head, but it was slowly fading away. Blinking his eyes fully open, he found himself staring up at a gray-green ceiling. To his knowledge, and he should know because he had been living in the place for four months, there was no room at the Playground that resembled this. Frowning, Leo turned his body to the right and rolled to the ground from a cot that he had been on. His hands connected with a cool cement floor as he looked around, confused.

He definitely was not in the Playground anymore, that much was certain. The room barely eight by eight feet for one, and then there was the heavy steel door. Leo got up and found it bore no handle to open. Sighing in frustration, he turned around to observe his surroundings behind him. Now he could see how sparsely furnished the room was. A barred, reinforced window was their only illumination, and aside from two buckets in two different corners (which, he was disappointed to learn, were bolted down), the only other items in the room were two cots. There was the one he had rolled off of, and another that was occupied by Skye.

Skye!

Leo rushed to her side, cursing himself for not thinking or noticing her earlier. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw she was still breathing 'She's alive,' he thought, glad that she was with him. Skye was one of two people he trusted to have his back, the other being…..

Simmons. Leo froze and covered his mouth, remembering what had happened before he had woken up. He felt his legs buckling, and sat down against the wall by Skye, trying not to throw up.

It wasn't supposed to happen like this.

Oh, I've missed being able to do that. It can get awful tiring, pretending to be nice and sweet all the time.

I'm sorry for this, Leo, but you'll soon understand.

She'd stood there like some terrible thing, bathed in those orange lights with a baton in hand and Skye at her feet. The cold gleam her eyes shone with as she came toward him. Her harsh laugh ripping away the image of the person who he had known her as. Leo knew Simmons had meant every word she uttered with malicious intentions. He thought she was sweet and innocent, absolutely incapable of doing anything this hideous. In reality, she was like a spider, weaving an invisible trap that he and Skye had helplessly fallen into.

When Hydra first reared its ugly head, Leo had been able to keep his world from falling apart to greatly because of Simmons and later Skye as well. Now, after seeing what he had, it felt as though a good chunk of it was crumbling to dust. He'd grown as a person thanks to his friendship with Simmons. Anything he'd ever known about her suddenly seemed flimsy, and Leo wondered if anything she ever told him was true. Her strange behavior in the last few days now made a lot more sense though. Her fidgetiness, the multiple calls, those small clever smiles that came out of nowhere for no reason, it all made sense now. Simmons had been plotting this for a while.

"Skye," Leo turned and gave her shoulder a small shake. "Skye?"

She twitched and groaned. "Whu?"

"Skye," Leo felt a bit of tension leave him when he heard her voice. "Wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open. "Leo?" Skye frowned, looking confused. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure, only woke up a few minutes ago," he replied as she sat up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, 'cept I'd like to know where we are. Also, and I know this isn't a huge priority, where are my shoes?"

Leo cracked a grin as she stuck out her cat sock clad feet, and then down at his own socks. He hadn't realized that his shoes were missing until now. His watch was also gone, and the buttons on his shirt had been ripped off, leaving it hanging open to expose his undershirt. Clearly, someone was doing what they could to take away anything that they could use as a weapon or way to escape.

"I…don't know," he confessed when he realized Skye was waiting for an answer. "I don't know where we are, or what's happening, but something is definitely going on."

"Wait, Simmons!" Skye's head whipped from side to side as she scanned the room. "Where's Simmons? Leo, she was hurt, they shot her!"

Leo swallowed uncomfortably. Skye had no idea what Simmons had done, and he was going to have to tell her. "Skye…"

"Do you think she's alive?" whispered Skye, tears building up in her eyes. "We can't lose Simmons, Leo. She's like a sister to me. I can't lose my sister."

Leo clenched his teeth at the last sentence, feeling the painfully memories stir up.

"I hate this. It's all my fault, Mum. He wanted me to drive, but I didn't feel like it and I told him I was tired."

"It's not your fault, Charlotte. You didn't know about the other driver."

"But it should have been me. I should have been the one. It's my fault Dad's gone!"

"Leo?" Skye was waving her hand in front of his face. "Are you okay? Come back to me."

He met her eyes and gave her a nod. "Yeah," he lied, shoving the memories back down. "Skye, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I was trying to move Simmons's other hand out of the way," she said after thinking for a moment. "She'd gotten one of them out easy, but wouldn't budge the other. It was almost out of the way when something hit me in the head, and then I blacked out. Next thing I know, you're calling my name."

Leo took a deep breath to gather his courage. He had a terrible feeling that he was about to destroy Skye's world. "I know who hit you," he said, sitting beside her on the cot.

"It was one of those two guys who we took out, wasn't it?" she asked. "I mean, that's my best guess, although I thought they were unconscious. I know at least your guy was. Not sure about mine anymore."

He shook his head solemnly and gave her hand a small squeeze of comfort. "You have no idea how much I wish it was one of them, but it wasn't."

"Leo, who did it? Was there another one?"

Saying the next three words was an incredible effort. "It was Simmons."

Skye stared at him, rigid in disbelief. She looked like she was about to cry. "What?" she whispered hoarsely.

"When I was looking at the wall, because of…the blood," Leo explained as a strong wave of guilt crashed over him. He hadn't been looking, and only made it easier for Simmons to carry out her plan. It was his fault they were here. He continued with a heavy heart. "I thought about something. I realized that we should have heard a gunshot, but we didn't, Skye. We just heard scream, and those guns, they didn't have silencers. I noticed this and when I turned around, you were in the ground. Simmons was standing over you, holding a baton."

"She knocked me out?" murmured Skye. Tears were beginning to appear in her eyes. "But she got shot!"

Leo shook his head. "I saw her side. There was no wound, it was just fake blood. I asked what was going on when she started to come closer to me. She wasn't the Simmons I know, the one we know. She was dark, and sinister and creepy and it scared me. Not even Ward scared me as much as she did. She told me that I would understand one day just before she took me out. But the way she said it…., Skye I don't think I want to know what it is."

"No," Skye cried, wiping her eyes angrily. "No no no, stop it! Leo, it can't be true!"

All Leo wanted to do was turn away in shame. He had seen the darkness Simmons harbored himself, but Skye hadn't. No matter how much he wanted things to not be this way, this was what they were, and there was nothing that could be done besides accepting them.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Skye," he told her. "But it is. Simmons is-"

"DON' SAY IT!" Skye screamed, jumping up from the cot, fist balled in anger. "SHE CAN'T BE, LEO. SHE JUST CAN'T!"

"Why not!" Leo shot back, standing up to face her eye to eye. "Why not, Skye? Give me a reason for it, any reason, but just tell me. Why. Not."

"Because," Skye faltered. "Because…."

She stopped and broke down in sobs. Leo wrapped his arms around her, feeling every wracking sob shake him. He lowered the two of them down together onto the floor, and permitted a few of his own tears to fall. He and Simmons had been through so much together, both good and bad, and he had trusted her with his life so many times. But right now, his faith in her was gone like breathe on a mirror. She was only a traitor in his eyes now.

"I didn't mean to yell," Leo apologized after Skye had quieted down. His shoulder felt damp, but that was the least of his concerns.

"S'okay," Skye's voice was a little muffled in his shirt. "But Simmons, she can't be-"

The heavy steel door clanged open and cut her off. The pair looked up and watched as two people entered in their cell. The first one, a man, was tall and muscular. His arms were peppered with thin little scars, but his right one was peculiar and caught Leo's attention. The lower arm (and, Leo assumed, the gloved hand) was an unnatural shade of dark purple, and parts of the purple looked to be slowly snaking up his veins. The woman with him had dark skin that made her acidic green eyes stand out even more than they already did. Beside him, Skye gulped nervously.

Then a third person entered the room, and Leo's world stilled.

Jemma Simmons strode in confidently as he ogled her, paralyzed in shock. She was dressed differently than usual, wearing a black sweater, a short red skirt, and high heels. The Simmons he knew never ever wore high heels, but she moved about in them with ease. She wore a white lab coat over the sweater, and it reassured Leo a tiny bit to see that there was no symbol for Hydra on it. Of all the things she'd ever told him, at least the one about her not being Hydra was true, or at least he hoped it was.

"Well," Simmons said breezily, giving the two of them a small, dark smile. "It's nice to see you up, Fitz. You too, Skye."

"Simmons?" Skye's voice was barely audible. "No, you can't be. You're an agent of SHIELD, not…not this."

The biochemist chuckled. "Oh, Skye. Didn't Fitz tell you? I know he saw me. I'm not loyal to SHIELD, never was. But I am loyal to the Doctor, and he wants to see you."

"The Doctor?" Skye frowned, shifting forward. "Doctor Who?"

"Just the Doctor, dear," Simmons replied. "He has a few other names, but that's one of his more professional titles."

Leo wisely resisted the urge to snicker, and found it squashed completely when the man stepped forward and pulled Skye away from him. "Hey," he shouted as the party began to exit. "Let her go!"

"Leo!" cried Skye as Jemma stepped between them and pulled out a gun. Leo stared at it in shock. It was like the early Night-Night Guns, except the frame was black and green glowed on the sides. Still, he climbed to his feet.

"You always have to be so aggravatingly stubborn, don't you," Simmons hissed. "I really thought you'd understand by now that I mean business."

She pulled the trigger, and Skye screamed. Something struck him in the forehead, and Leo felt himself fall to the ground as the world once again went black.


Ha ha, Cliffhanger! I'm sorry, but not sorry. I am scared of my own creation of Dark Jemma though.

Good news is that I've already made good progress on the next chapter, so you'll find out what happens when Skye meets her father.

Thoughts?